NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two Ukrainian men have been charged with hacking into computers of the Securities and Exchange Commission to steal quarterly and annual reports of publicly traded companies before their public release.
An indictment released Tuesday alleges Artem Radchenko and Oleksandr Ieremenko sold the information and used it to make stock trades in 2016 and 2017.
Both men are fugitives.
The SEC also filed civil charges Tuesday against Ieremenko and five others from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia.
Officials cited one example in which the group allegedly made more than $300,000 in about 30 minutes of trading. They allegedly made about $4 million in all.
The defendants allegedly sent bogus emails to SEC employees to try and get inside the federal agency’s network, and eventually created an automated program to extract documents.
